The State of Fashion 2017

“We expect the fashion industry to recover in 2017. Many fashion companies have already undertaken significant restructuring exercises, and are now primed to capture the benefits,” says Imran Amed, founder and chief executive officer of BoF.

The slight recovery stems from a range of sources. First, macroeconomic indicators, including global GDP growth forecasts which are highly correlated with fashion and consumer sentiment, are expected to improve next year. Second, the investment community expects improvements across the entire fashion industry, particularly driven by the behemoths within these segments, which are reorganising and divesting non-performing, non-core brands. This is confirmed by the industry executives surveyed for the report. Almost half of those interviewed expect 2017 to be better than 2016. “Uncertain,” “challenging,”, and “unstable” are the terms used most frequently to describe the fashion industry in 2016.